Ahead of Secretary Clinton’s speech this afternoon hosted by the Center for Global Development, Director of Policy & Planning Anne-Marie Slaughter and USAID Administrator Raj Shah briefed reporters on what to expect. Key passages include:
Slaughter: “She will say in the speech development was once the province of humanitarians, charities, and governments looking to gain allies in global struggles. Today, it is a strategic, economic, and moral imperative as central to advancing American interests and solving global problems as diplomacy or defense.”
Slaughter: “So in that context where development is really a central part of our foreign policy, she is going to emphasize the need to ensure that all of our development activities are accountable, transparent, and results-oriented – that the measure for success is not how many dollars we spend or how many programs we fund, but results in terms of actual evidence of development, progress and health and education, economic growth more broadly, and the advancement of women.”
Shah: “The first is to pursue our work fundamentally in partnership, not patronage. And the Secretary will speak more about this, but it is a real change in evolution where we will have very high expectations of political commitment and accountability for generating results in fields like agriculture and health and democracy…Second is around fundamentally elevating development to truly stand with diplomacy and defense as a major component of our foreign policy…A third is around coordination. And we have – and the Secretary has used the phrase around a whole-of-government approach, bringing the best technical expertise from across the federal government to solve the problems that represent themselves as development challenges.”
Shah: “Another principle is around – is really around developing comprehensive strategies to create transformational change in a focused set of areas, areas like health and agriculture, security, education, energy, governance. Our challenge will be in countries and in places where we work, really focusing on scale and transformative impact, and recognizing that if we try to do everything everywhere, we will likely be unable to have the kind of lasting impact that you can have when you focus our resources and focus our strategic thinking and approach a smaller set of challenges, but in a more comprehensive and strategically significant way…And the next principle is around investing and innovation…And finally, and perhaps most important, is the fundamental concept that I think Secretary Clinton represents to so many people around the world that women and girls are perhaps the most important area of focus for achieving sustainable development.”
